Sonic Incursion
Beta now available!

I see a good looking and playing game, but with a very bleak appearance. Sonic games normally have much brighter colors all around, typically more in the foreground than the background. It also looks like there's a moderate blur covering the screen at all times, as if vaseline was smeared onto it.

Despite my criticisms, it seems like you're putting a lot of heart and soul into this project and it's looking very nice so far. I say keep up the good work.

Over time, the game has become far more colourful. A good recent example is Hex Heights - since the gameplay video it has received a small boost in lighting and colour and generally looks better. This is the same almost across the board. You'll see soon!

And as for the blur....I really don't see it. Maybe it's because I take all my screenshots at 2560*1440, which is then reduced? Some shots where the character is moving naturally blur even without motion blur (which is always off).

Now then, what have I been doing with Sonic Incursion recently? Quite a lot of background things -

- Slightly modified camera.
- Vastly improved materials for rings, springs, Metal Sonic, Sonic, the Metallix, various Badniks, and other gameplay items.
- Layout changes across several levels.
- Revamped an Act 3 for Metal Sonic - this will be a full 3D mini-level.
- Dynamic shadows. This is limited to an area around the player, with a decent graphics card, it reduces the demand on the CPU, which boosts performance. The shadow quality is also much better.
- New particle effects for Badnik / Metallix destruction.
- Improved lighting / post processing.

Here are a couple of screenshots I took recently, showing some of these features.

Spoiler

I have been experimenting with Reshade, which I'm sure Skyrim/Fallout modders are fully aware of. It is a post processing wrapper that can be applied to a game to drastically alter it's appearance...and it's totally optional. But I haven't taken any screenshots of this yet.

I shared a build with a couple of people who have contributed to the game, one of whom (Ricardo, the developer of HDK) recorded a video of Ruined Relic Zone Act 1 -

Hello all. With SAGE now open, I can post a link for the new demo of Incursion. This has both playable characters available, with two zones. Sunkissed Shore, the first zone, and Hex Heights, the sixth. Unfortunatly, Icicle Incline Zone, which was shown in the SAGE trailer, wasn't ready in time for the deadline, so HHZ is the substitute.

I bring good news - Sonic Incursion can now be played from start to finish as Metal Sonic. Sonic's final level still needs to be implemented, but his final boss is already complete, meaning I just have one more zone to do! So, what is still left to do? I have an obscene amount of refinement, decoration, and general bugfixing left to do, but that is a given. There are two major tasks left, except the last level for Sonic, one is that the cutscenes need to be done. While the intro is implemented, it isn't finished. There are also a couple more "major" cinematics, then a few minor ones.

And the second, which I desperately need help with, is the UI. I'm talking the menus and the pause screens. I am not an artist, and I have zero knowledge of Flash or Actionscript. I want to stress this - I can finish what remains of Sonic Incursion alone, but I need help with this last step. There is no way I will release Sonic Incursion using the stock GDK menu.

If you know anyone, or can help yourself, or want some more information, let me know.

That's great, I may give this version a go in the future. I played the SAGE 2016 edition and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I ended up getting stuck but I suppose that was for the best as the video became long enough =D I thought I posted the video here before, but I obviously forgot:

Yes, I saw that video when you uploaded it. Some very useful feedback and thoughts, so thank you!

It's worth pointing something out that I did put in the readme, but few read (because who does that shit, amirite) - Hex Heights is actually the 6th level in the full game. I wanted to include the actual 2nd level in the game, Icicle Incline Zone, but the Act 3's were problematic and I couldn't finish them in time for SAGE. I wanted a level that didn't have any spoilers, but had an Act 3 playable to both characters, and had most of the work done already. Hex Heights fit the bill, so it was included. I know it was a severe jump in difficulty, which would seem strange if you thought it really was the second level. The actual game has a more steady difficulty climb.